C2PA and Article 50

C2PA (Content Credentials) is a provenance standard that can attach signed assertions to a media asset. It can help document origin and AI-generation claims, and SentinelGo can sign and inspect supported image assets.

How it relates to Article 50(2)

Article 50(2) requires in-scope providers of systems generating synthetic audio, image, video, or text to make outputs machine-readable and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated. The law does not mandate C2PA. C2PA is one possible technical measure; the implementation still needs to be effective, interoperable, robust, and reliable as far as technically feasible.

What a C2PA manifest can help show

• A signed provenance assertion was attached to a supported asset.
• The manifest can be inspected for its listed assertions and signature state.
• Teams have a reproducible technical control to document and test.

What it cannot prove by itself

• That every output from a system is correctly marked.
• That a manifest survives every downstream platform, transformation, or distribution path.
• That the system, provider, output type, or use case is within Article 50(2).
• That the deployer has satisfied separate Article 50(4) visible-disclosure duties.

Practical implementation checklist

1. Map which outputs and generation paths are in scope.
2. Choose and document a machine-readable marking approach appropriate to each format.
3. Test creation, inspection, common transformations, and downstream distribution.
4. Add clear user-facing disclosure where another Article 50 duty requires it.
5. Keep implementation and test evidence for human/legal review.

Use C2PA as part of a broader provenance and transparency programme—not as a standalone legal-compliance certificate.